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La Planète des singes
La Planète des singes - the original novel by Pierre Boulle and the basis for the motion pictures, television series, comic books, etc that have followed for over forty years. First edition was published by René Julliard, 1963, in Paris, France before the translations into English (by Xan Fielding) as 'Planet of the Apes' (USA 1963) and 'Monkey Planet' (UK 1964), and later into other languages - the French word 'singes' can mean both monkeys (primates with tails) or apes (those without), hence the different titles. One of the most important books in the history of science fiction, Boulle said the novel was triggered by a visit to the zoo where he watched the gorillas, impressed by their human-like expressions; "It led me to dwell upon and imagine relationships between humans and apes." But he didn't consider it one of his best novels, calling it 'just a pleasant fantasy'; "There are lengthy parts of the novel where I was not completely satisfied." '' Main Characters * Ulysse Mérou: A journalist who took part in the expedition to Betelgeuse. The hero of the novel. He successfully escapes with the help of Zira and her fiancé Cornélius. * Professor Antelle: The leader of the expedition. He loses his intelligence after his first contact with the apes. * Arthur Levain: A physicist and assistant to Professor Antelle. He was killed during a raid organized to capture humans. * Zira: A chimp who saves Ulysse Mérou. She works in the laboratory of Zaïus. * Mi Zaïus: An orangutan who does not believe the fact that man can have a soul or a spirit. * Cornélius: A chimpanzee, a great scholar and Zira's fiancé. * Nova: A woman of the planet Soror who has a child with Ulysse Mérou. * Sirius: The son of Ulysse and Nova. * Jinn and Phyllis: A couple of rich chimps traveling in space. * Zoram and Zanam: Two guards assigned to Mérou. Plot The main events of the book are placed in a frame story, in which Jinn and Phyllis, a couple out on a pleasure cruise in a spaceship, find a message in a bottle floating in space. The message inside the bottle is the testimony of a man, Ulysse Mérou, who has written down his story in the hope that someone else, somewhere, will find it. Ulysse begins by explaining that he was a friend of Professor Antelle, a genius scientist on Earth, who invented a spaceship that could travel at nearly the speed of light. Ulysse, the professor, and a physicist named Levain fly off in this ship to explore outer space. They travel to the nearest star system that the professor theorized might be capable of life, the red sun Betelgeuse, which would take them about 350 years to reach. Due to time dilation, however, the trip seems to the travelers only to last two years. They arrive at the distant solar system and find that it contains an Earth-like planet, which they name Soror (Latin for sister), "because of its resemblance to our Earth." They land on the planet and discover that they can breathe the air, drink the water, and eat the local vegetation. They soon encounter other human beings on the planet, although these others act as primitively as chimpanzees and destroy the clothing of the three astronauts. They are captured by the primitive humans and stay with them for a few hours. At the end of this time, they are startled to see a hunting party in the forest, consisting of gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees using guns and machines. The apes wear human clothing identical to that of 20th-century Earth, except that they wear gloves instead of shoes on their prehensile feet. The hunting party shoots several of the humans for sport, including Levain, and capture others, including Ulysse. Ulysse is taken off to the apes' city, which looks exactly the same as a human city from 20th-century Earth, except that some smaller furniture exists for the use of the chimpanzees. While most of the humans captured by the hunting party are sold for manual labor, the protagonist is sent to a research facility. There, the apes perform experiments on the humans similar to Pavlov's conditioning experiments on dogs, and Ulysse proves his intelligence by failing to be conditioned, and by speaking and drawing geometrical figures. Ulysse is adopted by one of the researchers, Zira, a female chimpanzee, who begins to teach him the apes' language. He learns from her all about the ape planet. Eventually, he is freed from his cage, and meets Zira's fiancé, Cornélius, a respected young scientist. With Cornélius' help, he makes a speech in front of the ape President and numerous representatives, and is given specially tailored clothing. He tours the city and learns about the apes' civilization and history. The apes have a very ancient society, but their origins are lost in time. Their technology and culture have progressed slowly through the centuries because each generation, for the most part, with what is recognized as characteristically ape-like behaviour, imitates those of the past. The society is divided between the violent gorillas, the pedantic and conservative orangutans, and the intellectual chimpanzees. Although Ulysse's chimpanzee patrons Zira and Cornélius are convinced of his intelligence, the society's leading orangutan scientists believe that he is faking his understanding of language, because their philosophy will not allow the possibility of intelligent human beings. Ulysse falls in love with a primitive human female, Nova, whom he had met in the forest at the beginning of his visit to the planet. He impregnates her and thus proves that he is the same species as the primitive humans, which lowers his standing in the eyes of many of the apes. However, their derision turns to fear with a discovery in a distant archaeological dig and an analysis of inherited memory in some human brains. Evidence is uncovered that fills in the missing history of the apes. In the distant past, the planet was ruled by human beings who built a technological society and enslaved apes to perform their manual labor. Over time the humans became more and more dependent upon the apes, until eventually they became so lazy and degenerate that they were overthrown by their ape servants and fell into the primitive state in which our protagonist found them. While some of the apes reject this evidence, others - in particular, an old orangutan scientist, Zaïus - take it as a sign that the humans are a threat and must be exterminated. Ulysse learns of this, and escapes from the planet with his wife and new-born son, returning to Earth in the professor's spaceship. Again, the trip takes several centuries, but only a relative time of a few years to the protagonist. Ulysse lands on Earth, over 700 years after he had originally left it, and lands outside the city of Paris. However, once outside the ship, he discovers that Earth is now ruled by intelligent apes just like the planet from which he has fled (this is where his story on paper ends). He immediately leaves Earth in his ship, writes his story, places it in a bottle, and launches it into space for someone to find. It is at this point in the story that we discover that Jinn and Phyllis, the couple who found the bottle, are chimpanzees. Jinn and Phyllis dismiss Ulysse's story, saying that a human would not have the intelligence to write the story. Initial Publications * '''Planet Of The Apes' (June 1963) was published by 'Vanguard Press' of New York, USA, from the translation by Xan Fielding. The first English-language version. * Monkey Planet (January 1964) was published by 'Secker & Warburg' of London, UK, from the translation by Xan Fielding. * Planet of the Apes (mass market paperback) (March 1964) was published by 'Signet / New American Library' in the USA. * Saga: The Magazine For Men Vol. 28, No. 2 (May 1964) included an abridged version of Planet Of The Apes with one colour & one black-and-white illustration - the first ever Planet Of The Apes illustrations, in the USA. * Planet of the Apes (paperback) (October 1964) was published by 'Roc' in the USA. * Planet of the Apes (mass market paperback) (1965) was published by 'Signet' in the USA. * Bizarre Mystery Magazine Issue #2 (November 1965) included an abridged version of Planet Of The Apes with two illustrations, in the USA. * Monkey Planet (paperback) (January 1966) was published by 'Penguin' (in association with Secker & Warburg) in the UK. Movie Despite Boulle's reservations, there was enough interest in his concept for two production companies to buy the cinematic rights to the book within a short space of time. 'King Brothers Productions' initially hired Rod Serling to prepare a screenplay, before the project was taken over by Arthur P. Jacobs' 'APJAC Productions'. After a long and arduous struggle, Jacobs eventually saw the movie through to release in 1968, and it was a huge success. Boulle said: "I never thought it could be made into a film. It seemed to me too difficult, and there was the chance that it would appear ridiculous. When I first saw the film nothing was ridiculous because it had been very well made." '' But he also added some concern at the differences between the two formats: ''"In comparison to the book, there were a lot of changes made. Some of them were disconcerting. The first part of the film was very good, and the makeup of the apes was particularly good, and, as I've said, that could have been ridiculous, but it wasn't. I disliked somewhat, the ending that was used - the Statue of Liberty - which the critics seemed to like, but personally, I prefer my own. I been in charge of the production, I could have provided ideas. If I had been free to make them I would have done them differently, but I'm incapable of working with a group of people which I know is necessary in the making of a film. When I write, I am alone. I give the book to my editor and I don't want to change anything, not even a comma." This was in stark contrst to Jacobs'claim that "Boulle... thought it was more inventive than his own ending, and wished that he had thought of it when he wrote the book." 'Cinefantastique Planet of the Apes Issue' (1972) at Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive Nevertheless, when the success of the movie prompted calls for a sequel, Jacobs turned again to Boulle to guide the project. Though never having written a screenplay before, Boulle turned in a story called Planet of the Men. Dealing with the aftermath of the first movie and detailing a human revolution to overthrow the apes, the screenplay was firmly in the same setting as the movie and bore no relation to the novel that had spawned the film originally. Jacobs, however, found the treatment "uncinematic" and asked another writer to complete a different story that would become Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Boulle had little interest in any of the other Apes movies that followed. Later Publications * Planet Of The Apes (paperback) (March 1968), published by 'Roc', USA. * Monkey Planet (paperback) (September 1970), published by 'Penguin', UK. * Planet of the Apes (paperback) (June 1971), published by 'Roc', USA. * Planet of the Apes (hardback) (August 1973), UK. * Monkey Planet (paperback) (January 1975), published by 'Penguin', UK. * Planet of the Apes (paperback) (November 1985), published by 'Penguin', UK. * Planet of the Apes (paperback) (June 1989), published by 'New American Library', USA. * Planet of the Apes (paperback) (February 1991), published by 'Mandarin', UK. * Planet of the Apes (mass market paperback) (1997), published by 'Random House', Canada. * Planet of the Apes (hardback) (June 2000), published by 'Gramercy', USA. * Planet of the Apes (mass market paperback) (May 2001), published by 'Del Rey', USA. * Planet of the Apes (paperback) (July 2001), published by 'Penguin', UK. * Planet of the Apes: Monkey Planet (paperback) (July 2001), published by 'Penguin', UK. * Planet of the Apes (paperback) (2005), published by 'Arrow', UK. * Planet of the Apes (hardback) (October 2007), published by 'Lightyear Press', USA. Other Publications * Notes External Links * La Planète des singes article at Wikipedia References Category:Novels